Tag: EQ

Yesterday Was Huge

I can’t remember the last time I had such an eventful day gaming so I’m going to go through each game one by one and my thoughts on them. The ones I’m playing, of course. Pictured above – my new home in EQ1! Doesn’t it look awesome. I need to purchase more trees for my lot, but so far I’m incredibly happy.

EverQuest (1): House of Thule went live and with it came a level cap increase (90) which of course also means new everything. Player housing was also released, and it’s just great (refer to my video yesterday for details). I spent a good chunk of time playing with my housing, and since I have the collectors edition I also had a lot of neat things to claim, including two paintings for the home, two mounts, and a few mercenary contract items. The down time was painless and I’d say out of all the updates yesterday the smoothest. I spent the morning watching the SOE Ustream event during the down time, and really appreciate the time and effort everyone put into it, especially since some had been at the office since 1am.

EverQuest 2: GU 58 went in yesterday. Some 5 room homes were given balconies which look really dang cool. I find it a little amusing that a 5-room home now has more item space then a T1 guild hall. I was a little put off by the fact that you can now purchase a 200 item expander from the market, as opposed to the 100 item expander (that don’t stack) crafted by players. $12. After playing both EQ2 and LotRO which have fairly elaborate markets, I feel that turbine does a MUCH better job on their price points. I really enjoy the new currency tab but wish it was shared across all characters so that I wouldn’t have to keep putting currency into my shared bank for alts. The new mount tab is also nice – but I still wish we had a quest item tab to clear out even more inventory space. The update had a number of bugs that still had to be worked out, and there was down time this morning for that. I haven’t tired the new zone yet, but new content is always good.

WoW: The game changing update 4.0.1 went in yesterday. The game didn’t come up until 9pm EST and then of course I had to disable every single AddOn I had until they’re updated. I like the changes to talents although it requires me to re-learn every single character I have which is not exactly fun. My single target dps is up on the shadow priest, but down in AoE damage. It felt odd to play her. I’m considering going holy instead of discipline, but I haven’t really decided yet. I went from 21,000 hp to 29,000 hp which was a nice change. I love what they’ve done to the talent window, the UI changes in general are nice looking. The graphic updates are quite nice. Azeroth is being plagued with earthquakes, and it’s giving me incredible bouts of vertigo, but a neat live event for the onset of a cataclysm.

LotRO: While there isn’t a huge patch going in right now – there is an incredible sale where you can purchase some quest packs for 75% off – and what’s more is if you actually quest through these packs you’ll make the turbine points back. Even though I have VIP access until February, I’m going to pick them up because – well, it’s just a fantastic sale and I know I won’t have a VIP account forever. The sale only goes on until midnight tonight, so be sure to take advantage of it. My Minstrel hit level 32 yesterday doing a few skirmishes, and I’m really excited about exploring further.

Happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!

Why so Much Emphasis?

After reading a number of early morning blog posts left over in my RSS reader from yesterday, I found myself wondering: Why do gamers put so much emphasis in what we and others are playing. Especially others. Why do we even care? Every day I read a post from one or more authors that includes some sort of semi derogatory remark condoning a group of players simply because of how they choose to spend their time. Or, to be more precise, where they choose to spend their time.

There are those who have made up their minds that everyone who plays a free to play game must be a certain ‘class’ of gamer. How dare they actually enjoy ‘the grind’ that comes with a lot of these games. Don’t they know that in the long run they’ll pay more for their “free” game then some people will pay for their monthly subscription?! Then there are the WoW gamers. Don’t even get me started on these people. I have heard everything from how close minded they are to how stupid they must be, simply because of where they choose to spend their time. It’s as though we as gamers have moved into certain categories and stereotypes not based on who we are, but because of where we play.You ask a fellow blogger their game of choice and suddenly your opinion of them shifts slightly.

So I ask again – why does this aspect of a person even matter. Why are we so keen to judge someone based on a persons decision to spend their free time where they wish. I have even heard people go so far as to say they do not like a particular person because they play certain games that they are not fond of. Really? Are we so shallow that we are now making character judgements based on video games?

I simply don’t understand it.

In my opinion it doesn’t matter where you play, so long as you have fun. In fact voicing my opinion about any other ‘type’ of gamer is a moot point because when it comes to how others are spending their time – my opinion doesn’t matter! It’s their time, their money, and what I think of the matter is completely irrelevant. I refuse to classify a person based on whether they’re playing EQ2, EQ, VG, LotRo, WoW, WAR, DDO, Darkfall, Wizard101, Runes of Magic, EVE, Alganon, Fallen Earth, Lineage II, Allods, Champions, STO, Free Realms, Aion, FFXIV, SWG, Guild Wars, AoC, or any other game.

Go play, and enjoy. Don’t like it? Move on and find something you DO enjoy. It’s a game. They’re supposed to be fun. There are SO many games out there and despite what others would say about them all cloning one another there are always unique factors to each and every game – you may be surprised at what you end up playing and enjoying. I implore gamers to make their own decisions about what they like and don’t like, and refuse to be classified into a category of gamer simply because of where they spend their time.

Giving Players Things To Do

I feel that it’s essential for games to offer players something else to do – some mindless goal to work towards so that they’re not constantly doing the same thing all of the time. Other wise they’ll complete that one goal they set out to do, and then stop playing your game. Out of all of the games I’ve played over the years I still feel that no game does this better then the original EverQuest. The Alternate Advancement path was one of the greatest things, giving raiders and casual players alike goals to work towards. Now, you may say to me “But Stephanie! What about those new players who don’t HAVE thousands of points to spend, isn’t it hard for them to catch up?!” – No. The less aa you have, the faster you’ll earn them. The curve is not quite so far out of reach even if you are a new player.

These little points are small ways for players to customize their characters, connect with them, and feel more ‘unique’ compared to their friends and the masses. Of course EQ is not the only game with these (EQ2 has aa, WoW has their talents, WAR has a similar set up, LotRO has their method even). I still feel strongly that EQ is the best example of this. There are literally thousands of possibilities for players to chose from. A player who has dedicated a year or two to their character will not have the same achievements as someone who has just reached level 55 – or someone who has been playing for 10 years.

House of Thule has hundreds of new achievements for players to work towards. The level cap is going up by 5, and in the mean time there is a bonus granted to players who have a lower amount of achievements at the moment. It’s not a perfect set up, but it at least shows some consideration to ‘new’ players (I put emphasis on new because I’m not really sure that EQ is bringing in truly new players as opposed to returning players).

I’m excited, does it show?

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

House of Thule – Housing Basics

Alright, there are a lot of really neat things coming out with EQ’s newest expansion “House of Thule” so I thought that since the NDA has been lifted, I’d make some posts about the basics. I’m going to start out with housing because it’s one of the largest (to me) changes and one that also may be the most confusing.

Houses serve a few purposes. Number one, you can use them for player storage, and number two, you can use them for social interactions (like guild meetings) and just plain fun like decorating.

The basic facts:

  • Very affordable, the largest house (three rooms) is 10k plat and a few thousand for smaller homes.
  • Upkeep can be paid through various means, all sorts of different currencies.
  • There is a housing UI where you can manage the items inside of your house, and the bonuses that trophies will give you
  • You can do a plot search, for empty plots or plots of your friends.
  • You can do a neighbourhood search, to see how many plots are taken and who has a plot where (in case you want to purchase one close to a guild mate).
  • There is a GIGANTIC selection of items to purchase for your home, including pets that you can place outside and action figures you can place inside that come with lore and old school music.
  • You can hang up weapons, you can place tradeskill stations, and you can craft furniture.

The neighbourhoods can be found at the back of the Guild Lobby, down a little hill behind an elaborate gate. You can search for which neighbourhood you’d like to go to from there. Once you’ve made your selection you’ll zone into the actual neighbourhood. Each house has a physical representation within the neighbourhood, as well as pads for teleportation within the zone, merchants for purchasing homes and furniture, craft stations, and a bank. Your first step may be to either pick out a house (there’s an NPC who says specifically they sell large houses or small) and they come in a very large choice of designs. After that you’ll want to check for an empty lot. You can do this again at an NPC near the entrance (thankfully these zones also come with maps).

Once you’ve found and made your way to an empty lot it’s simply a matter of standing within the giant square of land (it’s fenced off with a little stone wall for each section) and pick up the house on your curser and then drop it in the square of land. If it’s green that means you can place it. You can move it and rotate it to your liking using the place item commands.

Entering the home itself requires zoning, so it’s not exactly like Vanguard’s open neighbourhoods but it’s pretty close – something I am REALLY happy about. Each home is a physical building that players can see (as pictured above) rather then just a random door they enter (a la EQ2). The method of moving items around takes a little getting used to. They use the alt control and shift keys and the scroll wheel of the mouse to re-size and rotate. There are different ‘modes’ of placing items, one of them includes a collision mode. This leaves players with a LOT of control over their designs,  and I’m really interested to see what players come up with. Of course, we are limited to how many items can be placed within each home, and with so many options it may be hard to select.

I haven’t gotten a chance to check out what sort of bonuses the trophies give yet (mostly because I don’t actually OWN any trophies) but once House of Thule goes live October 12th I should be able to claim one from my collector’s edition of the game and report back on it.

With all of the new games constantly coming out, some times it’s nice to get excited about something so basic.

Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!